Patricia is Nunatsiavut Inuk as well as of British and German descent. She was raised as a second-generation urban Inuk in St. John’s, Newfoundland but is currently on Dakota and Ojibwe homelands in Minneapolis completing a PhD in history at the University of Minnesota. Previously, Patricia worked as the Director of Policy and Planning for the Nunatsiavut Government, and was a Jane Glassco Northern Policy Fellow. She holds a Bachelor's of Arts in African studies from McGill University and Master's of Arts in anthropology from the University of Cape Town. Her first book, Uitlanders in Stellenbosch: Identities, English, and Learning to Live Together, was published in 2025. She credits a significant degree of the quality of her work to her day-to-day supervisor: her husky, Duke.